Those responsible for the Cooperative Bank sell-off scandal must be held to account
Statements by the General Secretary of AKEL A.Kyprianou on the first case regarding the passports scandal brought to court
15th May 2021, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia
“We would like to welcome the fact that the Legal Service has forwarded to the courts the first case regarding the passports scandal.
This is an important step that we hope will be followed by many more. All the cases of abuse of the investment program must be taken to court and where justified passports must be removed. It is a program which unfortunately was abused that resulted in Cyprus being discredited and shamed.
I regret to say that, unfortunately, both the President of the Republic and members of the Council of Ministers are involved in this scandal.
However, I want to point out something else.
We welcome, as I said before, the fact that the Legal Service, making use of the Committee of Inquiry’s findings, is taking cases to court. But there is another finding of an inquiry which unfortunately to this day no action has been taken at all. Namely, the findings concerning the scandalous sell-off of the Cyprus Cooperative Bank. This finding/conclusion points the finger at those responsible for the destruction of the Cooperative Bank for which the Cypriot people have been burdened with several billion euros. I regret to say that to date neither the former Finance Minister/current DISY deputy leader Haris Georgiades, nor Mr. Nikolas Hatzigiannis have been summoned to testify as I repeat they are pointed out in the Inquiry’s finding as the main culprits for this enormous catastrophe.
We expect the Legal Service to take specific action.
We are not going to let this huge scandal be covered up.”
